Skyline owned Christchurch Casino faces money laundering prevention charges

A casino owned by Queenstown tourism giant Skyline Enterprises Limited is alleged to have failed to comply with the the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act over a five-year period.

The Department of Internal Affairs, Te Tari Taiwhenua (DIA), has filed civil proceedings in the High Court against Christchurch Casinos Limited alleging that the casino business failed to meet its compliance obligations under the Act.

Those include the obligations to establish, implement and maintain a robust AML/CFT compliance programme, to conduct enhanced customer due diligence and terminate business relationships when required, to monitor accounts, and to keep records as required by the Act. 

The failures are alleged to have occurred between December 2018 and December 2023, a DIA statement says.

Christchurch Casino is not alleged to be directly involved in money laundering or the financing of terrorism. 

However, under the AML/CFT Act, all New Zealand reporting entities (including casinos) are required to have adequate policies, procedures and controls to detect, and manage and mitigate the risk of, money laundering and financing of terrorism.

“New Zealand casinos can be exploited by criminals to launder the proceeds of crime and to finance terrorism if robust processes aren’t maintained,”  DIA AML/CFT Group director Serge Sablyak says.

“Casinos must implement strong measures to prevent this. 

“Casinos and other reporting entities that don’t uphold these standards will be held to account by DIA and other supervisors of the AML/CFT system.

“Though we are unable to provide further comment while the matter is before the High Court, DIA will continue to take firm action against reporting entities that fail to comply with their AML/CFT obligations.”

Christchurch Casino is wholly-owned by Queenstown-based company Skyline Enterprises.

Skyline Enterprises, which is not itself charged with any wrong-doing, operates the Queenstown gondola attraction and has luge businesses in New Zealand, Canada, South Korea and Singapore. 

The company’s latest reported unaudited preliminary profit before tax, for continuing operations for the year ended March 31 2024, was $29.8 million.

In a statement issued to the NZ Herald and other media the Casino said:

“Christchurch Casino has in place enhancement programmes in relation to AML/CFT compliance. This has evolved, and continues to involve, significant investment in people and technology, and various reviews of Christchurch Casinos’ processes and systems to identify areas which require improvement and updating.

“Christchurch Casino takes its AML/CFT compliance obligations seriously and intends to engage constructively with the DIA in relation to the proposed legal proceedings, with a view to resolving these matters as quickly as possible.”

“As the matter is to be before the High Court, Christchurch Casino is not able to comment further at this time.”

In September, SkyCity Entertainment Group confirmed it was fined $4.16 million for breaching AML/CFT obligations.

In that case, Internal Affairs reviewed SkyCity’s compliance between September 2022 and December 2023 and found SkyCity breached its obligations.